Decorating shoes



20, 945- H. H. HOFFMAN DECORATING SHOES F-iled Aug. 9, 1943 2 Sheets$heet 1 INVENTOR. HOWAfD H fiflFFM/FM @44.

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ATTORNEY Feb. 20, 1945. 91. H. HOFFMAN DECORATING SHOES Filed Aug. 9, l943 2 Shee ts Sheet 2 INVEN'I 'ORQ f/ownea HaFFMA/v.

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ATTORNEY- Patented Feb. 20, 1945 STATES RATENT oFmc v ,l .nnbo ta'rmqdsnoiisq. i HowardfH. Hofiman,. Fm-it Thomas, i-y., assi'guor Y tto'ithel LouisiG; Freeman ('30.. Cincinnatirflhio, sa'cornoration 01201110 'c I 4 n n aaenuu us -e, mes-,smam 4339s:

I l 7 1101mm; (emu-2c.

' My invention relates to process. .liifdenoiiati'ng e shoes and the. product produced. thereby... .andin its essentials consists the 'formation..=by.means. of embossing ,of. areas. on .the..shoe...upner -y'vhich are soflocatedandficfined .as...to,indic ate applica tiions to the upper of pieces. of'lleather different fromjthemainleather hotly oftheshoe. Byrefi-L erencetoleatherl do. not intend, to exclude any materialfrom whichshoei uppersare made-which: issub'jject toltaking'. a-permanentembossed. design.

It has been suggested .to impress raised areas upon shoe upper materials, and it has been sug,

gested to imprintas Icy-photographic means; upon shoe.- upper-s,, ar.eas which; will :look like piecesjof material appliqued onto the body of theupper, but the firstasuggestiondoes not result in: any thing. 01 value, and the, second suggestion is tooembossed. .in a raised desi n-L this. design. being located astdesired. onttheshoathereis nosimu lation of. anappliqued. or overlaid strip :of. mate-1 rial, because the areas embos'sed'aretstill; of the.

same surface appearance as the main body of the I which looks like an overlaid design, and which has an appearance factor of itself which is decorative and satisfying entirely apart from the simulation of efiects with which shoe wearers are familiar.

As an example, with reference to the vamp of I a shoe upper, I may supply a vamp throat collar ona smooth leather vamp by means of embossing the vamp with an area which is one likely to be occupied by such a throat collar, and so forming the embossing die that it impresses a grained efiect on the. said throat collar embossed area;

In order to enhance the effect, the margins 'of.

the design may be embossed with imitation stitches or theymay be actually stitched. Also to enhance the efiect simulated cut-outs can be formed in the area of another surface efiect from the body of the shoe, leaving the portions within what appear to be the cut-out areas either with.

a surface which is like that of the shoe in general or which has a third effect, such as a shiny or polished efiect. These cut-out areas may have expensive. and would, result in-,.a product. which; e looks. like justwhatdtis, to-witzsanimitation... If. theleather or. other upper. material issimply real or imitation stitching "around them. Or the margins or. the 'areaslordifferent surface effect.- mayibe heightenediin.appearance. asoverlays 'by deeply impressing. a "boundary .li'ne in the shoe m'aterialadjoining the'modifiedarea. Instead offforminga'groove.toimitalte'theedge ofanappliquelas last above.- noted, the. material may be split with a shallow gem. Iboundin-g the.

decoratejdfor. embossed areawandthi-s slitwillopen I upxsufiiciently ,ltheilasting. .off thes'hoe to give an indication of an; .overlay 'ihy reason; of. the vistblity of thecutmarg'in surroundingthe. decorated panel. I

Other meet amoeba: he produced by an embossing dies willlbeiwellrwithin. the graspof. the. mamskilleli .thearhwith. the above concepts' in minm namely that .the.- a .reas--'should. be ones which .correspond to ones which might be ex pected to be-.-.co.veredbyran addedmaterial, that l th areastshould lnthe embossing begiven-a difierentf surfacefiefiectl-fromzthe body of theaupp'er,

, and; preferablmrthataother devices of embossing unemployed: to heighten the efiectlas. by :imita.--

ticn;stitches,scut-duts deeply impressedtmargins:

andihezlikm. Y I

in. the drawingsgiin whichilzhayelchosen a single simple throat collar on a vamp as a mode of illustrating the points of my invention:

Figure 1 is an illustration of a vamp having a.

throat collar with a rough grain and in which imitation stitches define the meeting line between I the throat collar and the vamp proper.

imitation stitches.

Fig. 5 is'like Fig. 4, except that the cut-outs 1 have real stitching around them instead of mm tation or embossed stitches. In the case of the last two figures the boundaries with the vamp proper have not been picked up in any way, and any of the forms of Figs. 1 to 3 could be added.

It should be particularly noted that the selec' tion of this one simple overlay of a throat collar on a vamp should not be taken as in any way limiting the type of overlay or applique patterns which can be embossed. As a mode or practice of embossing upper materials in shoe making so that the embossing remains permanent, and does not smooth out or degenerate, I employ pressure with dies and heat. In applications for Letters Patent, Serial No. 372,372, filed by Benjamin W. and Louis G. Freeman, Jr. on December 30, 1940, is shown and described suitable mechanisms for performing the operation.- It is necessary that heat or some other means be used on leathers and imitation leathers in order to get a permanent effect, which will last as long as the shoe is supposed to last. g

Referring to the drawings in each of the figures, l is a vamp, which is to be decorated, and

later formed with other necessary parts into a shoe upper. 2 is a throat collar, 1. e., an area which is similar to that which might conventionally be occupied by an overlaid piece of material in order to form such acollar.

In each of the instances the same surface effect has been shown, for purposes of simplicity, a close smooth grain for the vamp, and a coarse grain, as of some fancy leather, for the collar effect. This coarse grainwill preferably be one which is characteristicof some knowndecor'ative leather or skin, usedin shoe upper decoration.

In Fig. 1, imitation stitching has been shown at 3, to define the boundary between the collar and the vamp proper. If the area were defined on all sides by the vamp proper, .then the imitation stitching would preferably be all the way around, since the point is to denote "a separation of materials, even thoughtheactual material be the same. In Fig. 2 there has been no effort to denote a particular type of boundary between the throat area and the vamp proper area by means of embossing, but instead of this, just outside of the margin of the collar effect where it meets the vamp proper an actual line of stitching has been made, as at 4. In Fig. 3, instead of any stitching effect, the idea has been to indicate the thickness of an added piece of material. For this purpose the boundary of the embossed design, where it meets the vamp proper, has been depressed in the embossing, so as to gradually depress the material of the vamp proper and develop a distinct edge as a boundary, all as indicated at 5. I have not illustrated the boundary formed by slitting instead of depressing, as heretofore noted, but it will be understood that such a slit is shallow, sur

rounds the exposed edges of the panel, just as does the depressed boundary last above noted.

In Fig. 4 I have employed the same throat collar embossed design but in this case have included within its boundaries, three oval areas 6 indicating conventional cut-outs. In order to enhance the effect and indicate what is normally accomplished by an underlay between the collar and the vamp, I have so arranged the embossing die that it smooths out the fine grain of the vamp proper to give a patent leather effect to the material that shows through or rather seems to show through the imitation cut-outs. In addition to this, I have also shown imitation stitching 1 around these simulated cut-outs.

In Fig. 5, I have formed simulated cut-outs 8,

as in the case of Fig. 4, but here I have not polished off the areas 8, but left them of the same grain surface as the vamp proper. To heighten the effect here, I have simply left a well defined depression for the cut-outs, as would result in an actual cut-out overlay, and have defined the boundaries of the cut-outs with actual stitching 9. g

The above will illustrate the procedure. In any instance where in conventional shoe making it i customary to superimpose material of different surface effect from the body of the shoe upper, it will be my practice to form this same in effect by embossing, using preferably, but not necessarily, some mode of heightening the effect of which the principal ones have already been illustrated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A shoe 'upper part having a relatively narrow embossed portion thereon which simulates in its shape and position a decorative superimposed piece of material, the embossing being such a to give a surface effect of a different material than the body of the upper upon which it is embossed. and the boundary of the embossing where it intersects the body of the material being embossed to give the effect of stitching.

HOWARD H. HOFFMAN. 

